One day after the 'incident':
In the outskirts of Seoul, when the city lay a sleep – a group of young men, of all ages, built and appearance, had gathered by the metal scraps recycling center. A majority of these men were wearing leather jackets and were accompanied by motorcycles. This alone was enough to identify these people as members of the motorcycle gang, Baem.
Initially, they could be considered small time petty criminals. However, they came from nowhere and like a raging storm swallowed all of Seoul in their pace. The police was well aware of their actions. The South Korean police forces had been monitoring the underworld situation for quite a long time. No matter how much the guardians of Murim tried to cover up the actions of Baem, there would always be traces left. Eventually, those who were more observant would take notice and anyone smart enough would begin piecing together the information.
The rumours of the Murim world were already quite popular amongst the police force of Seoul. The idea of another world operating independent of society piqued the curiosity of some while frightened others away. Those weren’t frightened and kept digging – and came extremely close to the truth. However, there were always people watching over the curious ones and they would be handled by the special squad – some were recruited and others were scared away. The special squad – similar to a SWAT team or DEA agents, was a special task force with no official name or identity. These police men and women were the best of the best from the South Korean Crime Prevention forces. Everyone belonging to this elite unit came from different backgrounds. Some even had a brief history with the special /armed forces.
Although, the elite unit could not compare with the strength of those from the Murim, the elite unit compensated for their weakness through their numbers. The Murim, at best consisted of a few hundred individuals in South Korea. However, the elite unit (or Special Forces) had nearly three thousand members. This unique combination of strength and numbers, kept the balance between the ordinary world and the Murim world – or at least the existence of a government force capable of handling Murim related incidents gave the government of South Korea a peace of mind that it could defend itself from those from the Murim. The situation between the governments of the world and the Murim could better be described as a monster you can’t kill but must share the bed with. No one would get a comfortable sleep in this sort of situation and hence the need for a watch dog.
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There did exist ‘other forces’ which would also take care of the Murim situation in South Korea – however, no government appreciates the interference of a foreign force on its own soil. Furthermore, the complex nature of politics made these ‘other forces’ an unreliable means to count on in times of emergency.
Just as the South Korean government had set up the nameless special squad, so did other governments across the world. It could be thought of having a PR manager. Nobody wanted to deal with the Murim but somebody had to handle the situation as and when they arose.
Today, one such situation arose – the Baem. They killed a high profile minister of the state. This was the first time when someone from the Murim made such a big move in the ordinary world. Usually, their disputes were only very low levels – that wouldn’t even pique the interest of the government. However, the assassination of the Petroleum Minister sent the government into frenzy and there was increasing pressure on the elite squad to make their move.
Originally, the Baem was an ordinary drug peddler group – too low profile to be on anyone’s radar. However, their meteoric rise, soon caught everyone’s attention. The elite squad had been following them for days and was well aware that this group had single handedly crushed all the guardians of Murim in South Korea. Such an oppressive force was something they too were afraid of moving against.
It must be remembered that the elite squad only balanced the Murim forces – which never acted cohesively. However, for the Baem gang to take out such powerful forces simultaneously implied they were not to be trifled with. Their actions of assassinating the minister also hinted of their ambitions. This worried the elite forces; they could not move against the enemy and had no option but to watch from the side lines and watch for an opportunity to strike.
The opportunity presented itself today to them; a mass meeting of all of Baem. Baem had less than one hundred core members, those belonging to the Murim and another thousand or so who-thought-that-they-joined-the-best-motorcyle-gang-in-the-world. On an ordinary day, the Baem would be scattered across South Korea. This meant that to take action against Baem without them noticing – would require a large scale operation to take out all of Baem all at once. A joint operation with the elite unit and ordinary police force would be difficult to coordinate and there always existed the possibility of leaks. Also, such a large operation would not guarantee success that the core members and head of Baem would be captured – a must if the cancer were to be killed at the source. If they failed, then Baem would surely go into hiding and then strike from the shadows. Essentially, the risks far outweighed the gains.
However, ‘annual meeting’ was different. It meant everyone would be gathered at one location. This meant that the head and the body of the snake would be gathered in one location – a mass culling operation.
“All right everyone. Everyone is gathered. Please take care of yourself and your comrades…” A happy voice chirped through the radio of the elite forces. “Our orders are clear – no one is to escape.”